Street Art

Lockdown Thought — Day 3

We can do this — together.

Not long ago, about 20 men and a few women crowded into a corrugated iron shed, the Catholic favela community called their church. They’d built their dwellings along the track to the church and now an opencast mine was eating its way to their doorsteps. The mine owner had approached a few offering to buy their plots so he could expand the mine. The people were anxious and conflicted. They knew how tempting the money was, how easily their refusal to sell could be disregarded, how meagre their legal right to the land if contested and how impossible to find somewhere else. Their gathering aimed to strategise an approach to the local authority to stop the mine’s expansion. They called on an educated “Protestant” to facilitate their meeting supported by the Austrian priest and New Zealand parish sister. Finally they agreed about the contents of a letter. Just a few months earlier these adults had learnt to write their names at a church workshop, and now they took it in turn to sign their names on the petition, concentrating hard and checking their identity cards for accuracy. After sending their letter, quite unexpectedly in this case of the poor versus power, the mine owner stopped pressurising for their land and later still, abandoned the mine.

That experience illustrates the principle of solidarity — of standing together for the common good. The efforts we make to stay at home now strengthen our sense of personal and communal solidarity and ongoing conversion. Being in solidarity means tapping into a community spirit of hope and energy for the long haul  — these next weeks.

adapted from Tui Motu Magazine. Issue 212 February 2017: 2
In our solitude
we are nevertheless together
staying at home
in solidarity 
creating a safer world
mindful of all those sick and dying
drawing strength from you
our gracious God.

New Tip: Write a message in LARGE LETTERS and stick it on a window facing the street for walkers to read. Remember to change it every now and then.